Tuesday, 19 August 2008

The female osprey has not been seen for a while but there is still at least one juvenile and the adult male hanging about. One of the juveniles came onto the nest yesterday several times, shouting for food. However, it wasnt until 3 o'clock that I noticed it was feeding on a pike. So the male obviously had brought a fish in.This morning one bird was sitting to the back of the nest but I couldnt see whether it was an adult or a juvenile because it was so far away.

On Aug 9th I took 14 people to a nearby loch to see if we could see our ospreys fishing. It didnt bode well as the rain poured all day. Yet as we stepped out the minibus the rain eased off and we started looking for our feathered chums. After about 15 minutes we saw a pair of ospreys flying over the loch, one behind the other. From the colour of the plumage it looked like an adult being closely followed by a juvenile. The adult bird washed its talons several times in the loch in front of us and even went in for a "dook" a couple of times. It seemd to be having a bath as no fishing behaviour was observed. After watching these two for a wee while it was time to go and as soon as we got back on the bus, the heavens opened. Talk about good timing!

Saturday, 2 August 2008

We had a nice view of the osprey female today sitting on a dead tree feeding on a good sized trout. She seemed to be in no hurry to eat it as she spent about 3 hours sitting there and most of the time was looking round about her. It was nice to see the female getting such a good feed. Whilst she is looking after chicks she only gets around 40% of her normal food intake. She uses the time after the chicks have fledged to build up her own body weight, to make herself fit for the 3000 mile migration back. After all she will be the first to go.

Two woodpeckers were seen, one on each feeder, today. However, I know at least three have been there as there has been a female, a male and a juvenile. For those of you who dont know, a female Great Spotted Woodpecker has no red on her head, the male has a little bit of red on the back of his head and the juvenile has a red cap. As the juveniles age this red cap gradually disappears and changes to either a male or female markings.

We have only seen one Barn Owl chick all day, so can only assume the oldest chick had fledged before the camera came on. The camera doesnt cover the whole of the base of the Barn Owl box so sometimes the chicks can be hiding up one end of the box and remain invisible to the camera. However, normally at some point during the day they move and you see at least the part of their bodies on screen. This hasnt happened today and one chick has remained visible throughout and its behaviour has suggested that it is on its own. (Awww!) This chick has also started to look out the entrance hole and at one point, we only saw its tail feathers, like it too was on the point of fledging. It wont be long now.